Artists Space Exhibitions

Architects who skirt the line between art and architecture generally insist on having things both ways: Artists (and art critics) are supposed to recognize them as architects and allow them certain liberties, while architects (and architectural critics) must do the same, on opposite grounds. The difference between a good architectural rendering and a bad watercolor often ends up a question of semantics. That said, Zaha Hadid is one contemporary architect whose graphic oeuvre deserves to be called an artistic achievement.

Hadid’s graphic style is actually fairly straightforward, in the sense that its elements have remained remarkably consistent over the course of a twenty-five-year career. The basic components are the plane and the vector. The drawings tend to be white line on a black or dark background, and color usually defines and is confined within an implied surface. In almost all of